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Hammond's Rimac Crash
On the 10th of June, 2017, as filming for the second season premiere of The Grand Tour was preparing to wrap up, presenter Richard Hammond would inadvertently crash the Rimac Concept One on loan to him from the company for the purposes of a three car comparison against the Lamborghini Aventador S and Honda NSX at the Bergrennen Hemberg event in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Accident The accident occurred after most photography for the episode had concluded, and so the only footage of the accident is of amateur quality and turned away as the accident occurred. Regardless, it can be clearly seen that Hammond lost control of all four tyres due to carrying far too much speed to adequately brake his vehicle after having crossed the finish line. The Rimac than slides uncontrollably towards the edge of the hill, where there is no protective barrier, and collides with a lamp post, extensively damaging the front end of the car and ripping the entire front panel clean off. The car then continued to careen unimpeded down the side of the hill, rolling end over end multiple times before coming to a rest upside down. Still conscious, Hammond managed to drag himself out of the car as the battery cells ruptured, causing an uncontrollable blaze which continued to rage on 5 days after the initial accident. The Concept One was totally destroyed, with fellow presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May both believing Hammond to have been killed in the accident as they arrived on the scene, largely due to an error in communication that gave the former the impression that his "body" had been removed from the car. Aftermath News of the accident broke later the same day, and Hammond was airlifted to hospital in order to recuperate from his injuries. On the 29th of June, nineteen days following the accident, DriveTribe released a video where Hammond discussed his horror crash with Rimac CEO, Maté Rimac. Filming for the second season of The Grand Tour had to be paused in order to allow Hammond time to fully recover, and would be put on hold further when Clarkson suffered from pneumonia in August. As a result, only enough footage to adequately cover 10½ episodes was filmed, with the season finale being turned into a "mini-special". Legacy Unlike Hammond's first crash in 2006, where both of Hammond's fellow presenters were told never to reference the crash again, with the episode featuring the crash only ever airing once, this crash was referenced extensively throughout the second season of The Grand Tour, with Hammond often as the butt of a joke. One such joke involved Hammond being gifted an alarm clock with a broken toy car on top, with the car rigged to explode into flames once the alarm went off. Footage from the crash, alongside his first crash whilst on Top Gear, were shown during the closing studio montage of Funeral for a Ford, the Season 3 finale. Category:The Grand Tour Category:Season 2 Category:Richard Hammond Category:Events